#Focac: Intra-Africa trade accounts for 16 percent of Africa’s global trade compared with about 40 percent in North America and about 60 percent in Western Europe. Africa remains economically fragmented with 54 small markets.
While intra-Africa trade may be low by global standards, for most African countries intra-African trade is already considerably more important than the aggregate figures suggest. The shares of intra-African trade in African countries’ total exports show that Africa is by far the second most important export market for most African countries behind Europe. The key feature is that intra-Africa trade is more diversified and growing.
This has been excerpted from a 4 December 2015 news item by IOL and is available in its entirety at: http://sbeta.iol.co.za/business/opinion/working-towards-continental-free-trade-1955180